figlet

FIGlet.go

___________.___  ________.__          __
\_   _____/|   |/  _____/|  |   _____/  |_      ____   ____
 |    __)  |   /   \  ___|  | _/ __ \   __\    / ___\ /  _ \
 |     \   |   \    \_\  \  |_\  ___/|  |     / /_/  >  <_> )
 \___  /   |___|\______  /____/\___  >__| /\  \___  / \____/
     \/                \/          \/     \/ /_____/

A Go port of figlet.js that implements the FIGfont spec to generate ASCII art from text. Provides both an importable Go library and a command-line tool.

Quick Start

Install

go get github.com/damienbutt/figlet@latest

Simple Usage

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    text, err := figlet.Text("Hello World!")
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(text)
}

This will print out:

  _   _      _ _        __        __         _     _ _
 | | | | ___| | | ___   \ \      / /__  _ __| | __| | |
 | |_| |/ _ \ | |/ _ \   \ \ /\ / / _ \| '__| |/ _` | |
 |  _  |  __/ | | (_) |   \ V  V / (_) | |  | | (_| |_|
 |_| |_|\___|_|_|\___/     \_/\_/ \___/|_|  |_|\__,_(_)

Basic Usage

Text

Generates ASCII art from the given text. Takes two parameters:

• text — the string to render as ASCII art.
• opts — an optional *FigletOptions to control rendering (font, layout, width, etc.). Omit or pass nil to use the package defaults.

Returns the generated ASCII art as a string and an error.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    text, err := figlet.Text("Boo!", &figlet.FigletOptions{
        Font:             "Ghost",
        HorizontalLayout: "default",
        VerticalLayout:   "default",
        Width:            80,
        WhitespaceBreak:  true,
    })
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("Something went wrong:", err)
        return
    }

    fmt.Println(text)
}

That will print out:

.-. .-')                            ,---.
\  ( OO )                           |   |
 ;-----.\  .-'),-----.  .-'),-----. |   |
 | .-.  | ( OO'  .-.  '( OO'  .-.  '|   |
 | '-' /_)/   |  | |  |/   |  | |  ||   |
 | .-. `. \_) |  |\|  |\_) |  |\|  ||  .'
 | |  \  |  \ |  | |  |  \ |  | |  |`--'
 | '--'  /   `'  '-'  '   `'  '-'  '.--.
 `------'      `-----'      `-----' '--'

Options

The FigletOptions struct has the following fields:

Font

Type: FontName (string alias) Default value: "Standard"

The FIGlet font to use for rendering.

HorizontalLayout

Type: KerningMethods (string alias) Default value: "default"

Controls horizontal kerning/smushing. Accepted values:

VerticalLayout

Type: KerningMethods (string alias) Default value: "default"

Controls vertical kerning/smushing. Accepts the same values as HorizontalLayout.

Width

Type: int Default value: 0 (no limit)

Limits the output to this many characters wide. For example, if you want your output to be a max of 80 characters wide, you would set this option to 80. Set to 0 to disable.

WhitespaceBreak

Type: bool Default value: false

When used with Width, attempts to break text on whitespace boundaries rather than mid-word.

PrintDirection

Type: PrintDirection Default value: DefaultDirection (uses the font's own setting)

Controls the rendering direction. Use LeftToRight or RightToLeft to override the font default.

ShowHardBlanks

Type: bool Default value: false

When true, hardblank characters (used internally for spacing) are preserved in the output rather than replaced with spaces.

Understanding Kerning

The 2 layout options allow you to override a font's default "kerning". Below you can see how this effects the text. The string "Kerning" was printed using the "Standard" font with horizontal layouts of "default", "fitted" and then "full".

  _  __               _
 | |/ /___ _ __ _ __ (_)_ __   __ _
 | ' // _ \ '__| '_ \| | '_ \ / _` |
 | . \  __/ |  | | | | | | | | (_| |
 |_|\_\___|_|  |_| |_|_|_| |_|\__, |
                              |___/
  _  __                   _
 | |/ / ___  _ __  _ __  (_) _ __    __ _
 | ' / / _ \| '__|| '_ \ | || '_ \  / _` |
 | . \|  __/| |   | | | || || | | || (_| |
 |_|\_\\___||_|   |_| |_||_||_| |_| \__, |
                                    |___/
  _  __                        _
 | |/ /   ___   _ __   _ __   (_)  _ __     __ _
 | ' /   / _ \ | '__| | '_ \  | | | '_ \   / _` |
 | . \  |  __/ | |    | | | | | | | | | | | (_| |
 |_|\_\  \___| |_|    |_| |_| |_| |_| |_|  \__, |
                                           |___/

In most cases you'll either use the default setting or the "fitted" setting. Most fonts don't support vertical kerning, but a hand full of them do (like the "Standard" font).

Metadata

Metadata retrieves a font's parsed header options and comment string.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    meta, comment, err := figlet.Metadata("Standard")
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("something went wrong:", err)
        return
    }

    fmt.Printf("%+v\n", meta)
    fmt.Println(comment)
}

Fonts

Fonts returns a sorted list of all available font names from the embedded font library.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    fonts, err := figlet.Fonts()
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("something went wrong:", err)
        return
    }

    fmt.Println(fonts)
}

LoadedFonts

LoadedFonts returns the names of all fonts currently loaded in the in-memory cache (i.e. already parsed and ready to use).

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    loaded := figlet.LoadedFonts()
    fmt.Println(loaded)
}

ClearLoadedFonts

ClearLoadedFonts resets the in-memory font cache so that no fonts are loaded.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    figlet.ClearLoadedFonts()
}

ParseFont

ParseFont allows you to load a font from any source — for example, from a file on disk — and register it under a given name for use with Text.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    data, err := os.ReadFile("myfont.flf")
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("something went wrong:", err)
        return
    }

    if _, err := figlet.ParseFont("myfont", string(data)); err != nil {
        fmt.Println("something went wrong:", err)
        return
    }

    text, err := figlet.Text("myfont!", &figlet.FigletOptions{Font: "myfont"})
    if err != nil {
        fmt.Println("something went wrong:", err)
        return
    }

    fmt.Println(text)
}

Defaults

Defaults allows you to read or update the package-level defaults. Pass nil to read without modifying.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "github.com/damienbutt/figlet"
)

func main() {
    // Update defaults
    figlet.Defaults(&figlet.FigletDefaults{
        Font:     "Standard",
        FontPath: "some-random-place/fonts",
    })

    // Read current defaults
    d := figlet.Defaults(nil)
    fmt.Println(d.Font)
}

Getting Started - Command Line

Installation

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install damienbutt/tap/figlet

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add damienbutt https://github.com/damienbutt/scoop-bucket
scoop install figlet

Arch Linux (AUR)

Binary package:

paru -S figlet-bin

Or build from source:

paru -S figlet

Go Install

go install github.com/damienbutt/figlet/cmd/figlet@latest

Pre-built Binaries

Download pre-built binaries for your platform from the releases page.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/damienbutt/figlet.git
cd figlet
make install

Usage

Once installed, you can run figlet from the command line:

figlet "Hello World!"

LICENSE

MIT